Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but to do well on the MCAT there is more to it...
Review: Do not buy this book. I REPEAT. DO NOT!! This was a waste of my time. The book was very vague and introduced things that would never be tested on the Real Mcat. Stay away Kaplan. You lowered my score!
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but to do well on the MCAT there is more to it...
Review: Don't get me wrong, this book is good. It reviews the four major subject areas tested on the MCAT, and does it well. The information is there and pretty well organized. But for me the key to doing well (I scored in the mid 30's) was working through the past MCATs provided by the AAMC (not the exercises provided by Kaplan). My advice would be to read this book, but to leave yourself at least two weeks prior to the exam to just work through the past MCATs. I bought all the practice exams..., but they were worth EVERY PENNY.I suggest you time yourself as if you were taking the actual exam, it helps A LOT. I thought the MCAT was a relatively long exam given the time alloted. Working through the practice exams helped me work on my time management skills, which helped me tremendously on the day of the exam. Also, the exams helped me understand the style of questioning on the MCAT. Although I never found the same question repeated on any of the exams, the type and format of the questions were similar. CONCLUSION: Read this book, it is a good review book providing the needed backgound information. But I suggest you spend at least a couple of weeks working through the AAMC practice exams, under timed conditions, and reviewing their answer booklets.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Start
Review: First I'll introduce myself- I'm a 37 year old with a BA and MAT in biology who is planning on returning to school next year. I am using this as a study guide for the OAT, since 1) the OAT books are not well reviewed, and 2)they say if you can 80% the MCAT, you'll 90% the OAT. The MCAT covers several years worth of material. This book- hefty as it is - is only a good starting point for studying. It outlines the material covered on the MCAT with some depth, but that's it - it's only an outline. If the material is somewhat familiar to you, you'll need no other resource, but when you get stumped, you will occasionally have to seek more detail elsewhere.
The book also does not have many practice problems- which again will cause you to open old text books. There is a single test in the rear, but I always feel like saving that to the end. The CD is ok. It also contains a test and some handy flashcards. The flashcards are nice, but you can't work with them by subject. Again- this book is only a beginning. I purchased this book because I trust Kaplan and, with my limited expectations, I have not been disappointed. Some of the other MCAT prep-books had "reviews" which read suspiciously like planted advertisements. Some of the other MCAT prep-books had " review opinions" which were posted with near-identical wording on different web sites. ANY book which claims to have ALL the answers to your MCAT needs is lying, unless the tome is over 2000 pages, or has a font size of 8. So, suspicious of the competition, I bought this book and I have not yet been disappointed. P.S. Being Kaplan, there are a lot of helpful hints and strategies as you read along, but, if you are familiar with Kaplan, you'd already expect that.
Rating: 
Summary: Great tool for mastering the MCAT, invaluable to premeds.
Review: I am a premed and will be starting med school in August 2001. This book was great for me for several reasons. First, it covers really all the science material on the test. This book essentially had everything I'd learned from a year of general chem, a year of organic, a year of physics, and countless biology courses. So the scientific review is great. But I think the best part about the book is the large section that really prepares you for the rigorous format of the MCAT. This book actually teaches you Kaplan's proven method of how to take the MCAT - from strategies on how to move through the questions, to how to write the essays... The book really prepared me for the test. I only had to take the MCAT once, but without this book I probably would have had to take it again ..., so this book more than paid for itself for me. Kaplan also knows the areas that the MCAT really likes to cover and lets you know - several of these tips paid off for me on the test. The book also has full length practice tests and half length tests on the CD that analyze your performance and time you and let you know where you're weak and how you can adjust yourself timewise. I would really recommend this book to anyone that needs to excel on the MCAT to get into med school....
Rating:
Summary: You need more than just this book!
Review: I recommend that you buy a used copy of this book, even if it an older edition, I've heard they don't change that much from one year to the next (but don't go too old). The reason being because you should determine your weak area(s) and purchase the Examcrackers book specific for that subject. Whatever you do STUDY!!! Don't do what I did and just go take it, it ripped me up one side and down the other! I'm taking it again in August. I got the Examcrackers Verbal Reasoning to go along with this one.
Rating:
Summary: You need more than just this book!
Review: I recommend that you buy a used copy of this book, even if it an older edition, I've heard they don't change that much from one year to the next (but don't go too old). The reason being because you should determine your weak area(s) and purchase the Examcrackers book specific for that subject. Whatever you do STUDY!!! Don't do what I did and just go take it, it ripped me up one side and down the other! I'm taking it again in August. I got the Examcrackers Verbal Reasoning to go along with this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't use this book as your only study guide!
Review: I used this book to study for the August 2002 MCAT and I performed as I expected. I also worked through most questions in the Kaplan MCAT Workbook and several of the Examcrackers books. One thing I noticed very quickly is that had my background not been very strong, those books would have been useless. The key to performing well on such a grueling exam is to review old college materials (notes, textbooks, etc.) and to be a good student in the first place. Any review should just be that, a review and not instruction in materials with which you are unfamiliar. This book is a decent review but not necessarily a complete review. I believed that the physical sciences section was particularly weak when compared to the questions on the MCAT. For a much better review, I worked questions from my old college physics and chemistry books. I suppose the point of my rambling is to say "beware." Even though this book is marketed as a "complete" review, use all materials at your disposal to perform your best.
Rating:
Summary: Decent review.
Review: I used this book to study for the August 2002 MCAT and I performed as I expected. I also worked through most questions in the Kaplan MCAT Workbook and several of the Examcrackers books. One thing I noticed very quickly is that had my background not been very strong, those books would have been useless. The key to performing well on such a grueling exam is to review old college materials (notes, textbooks, etc.) and to be a good student in the first place. Any review should just be that, a review and not instruction in materials with which you are unfamiliar. This book is a decent review but not necessarily a complete review. I believed that the physical sciences section was particularly weak when compared to the questions on the MCAT. For a much better review, I worked questions from my old college physics and chemistry books. I suppose the point of my rambling is to say "beware." Even though this book is marketed as a "complete" review, use all materials at your disposal to perform your best.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Text
Review: I wish I had this book when I was still un undergrad. student. After taking a course with Princeton Review(totally waste of time) and before taking the real mcat, I bought this book for extra practice. This book was easy to read with lots of neat tips. Even the test questions were similar to those on my actual mcat, unlike the crap on the Princeton Review practice tests. Practice questions at P.R. were so out of whack b/c they they had to be different from other testing publishers(kaplan, colombia, arco, etc.m,)No, I dont work for Princeton Review but I highly recommend this book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Decent book
Review: It's a good review book although it lacks some topics(check the topics' list from the official MCAT site). In my opinion it doesn't have enough practice problems and that's why I bought a workbook.
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